The present invention relates to a clean room and more particularly to a modularly constructed clean room in which there are no seams between adjoining modules, between the floor and side walls or between the side walls and ceiling.
The need for a controlled, contaminant free work area is well recognized in industry. Accordingly, specialized clean rooms have been developed to provide a controlled environment in which operations can be performed with minimal contamination from airborne particles. The atmosphere in a clean room is typically purified from particle contaminants by the use of high efficiency particle air (HEPA) filters.
It is desirable to provide a clean room structure that can be quickly assembled at a user's production facility such that the operation of the production facility is interrupted as little as possible during the construction of the clean room. This is particularly important during an expansion of an existing clean room where it is desirable to reduce, as much as possible, the amount of dust or dirt generated during the construction of the clean room addition. A clean room of modular construction can be prefabricated off-site and assembled at the production facility of the user. Off-site fabrication of the clean room enables the clean room to be assembled using a minimal amount of time and construction space and creating a minimal amount of dust and dirt. With a modularly constructed clean room, between each module, a seam is formed on both the interior and exterior sides of the clean room wall. In addition, a seam is formed at the corners between adjacent side walls as well as at the corners between the side walls and floor and between the side walls and ceiling. Such seams can be sealed, producing a clean room structure that does not allow any contaminated air to enter the room at the seams. As such, modular construction can effectively be used for industrial clean room applications where the primary desire is to eliminate particle contaminants from the atmosphere within the clean room.
However, in some clean room applications such as in the pharmaceutical industry, where sterile filling operations are performed, not only is it required that particulate contamination be removed from the atmosphere, but also that the interior of the clean room be sterile. A sterile environment is maintained by periodic washing of the interior side walls, ceiling and floor surfaces with a sterilizing solution. However, at each seam or at each corner crevice, an opportunity exists for moisture to collect and bacteria to grow, compromising the sterile environment.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a modularly constructed clean room with a seamless interior surface and without corner crevices to enable the interior of the clean room to be washed and sterilized without opportunity for moisture to collect.
The modular clean room of the present invention eliminates corner crevices between adjacent side walls, between side walls and the floor and between side walls and the ceiling by placing a radiused cove molding in each corner that is smoothly joined with the side walls, floor and ceiling. A joint filler is used to provide a smooth, tangential transition from the flat surfaces to the radiused cove surface without any crevices for the accumulation of moisture etc. A durable coating is then applied to the floor, side walls and ceiling to form a continuous inner surface without any seams. A preferred coating is an epoxy paint with an anti-bacterial agent to retard bacteria growth. Return air ducts within the wall modules have one piece molded return air intakes that are mounted flush with the wall and covered with the coating to avoid any seams. In addition, the air intakes are contoured with smooth walls avoiding any crevices so as to be easily washed.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.